Rafi al-Issawi

Rafi al-Issawi (2 March 1966-) was the Minister of Finance of Iraq from 22 December 2010 to 1 March 2012, succeeding Baqir Jabr al-Zubeidi. He was purged from the government in 2012 by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, the sectarian Shia leader, leading to hundreds of thousands of people protesting in Fallujah and Ramadi against Issawi's arrest and the sidelining of Sunnis from Iraqi politics.

Biography
Rafi al-Issawi was born on 2 March 1966 in Anbar, Anbar Governorate, Iraq to the Albu Issa tribe of Sunni Arabs. He was trained as an orthopedic surgeon in Baghdad and Basra before becoming head of the Fallujah hospital during the Iraq War. He accused the United States of preventing doctors from helping the 800 locals who died during the Second Battle of Fallujah, and he also accused the US Army of attacking ambulances. On 20 May 2006, he became Minister of State for Foreign Affairs with the secular and nationalist National Future Gathering party, and on 22 December 2010 he entered Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government as Minister of Finance. In December 2011, he began to boycott the cabinet due to Maliki's support of Shia militias in the country and his purges of the Sunni leadership, and Maliki accused him of being linked to al-Qaeda in Iraq. al-Issawi in turn accused Maliki of being a dictator, and on 1 January 2012 he was nearly assassinated in an IED attack that wounded two security guards; he left office in March 2012. On 19 December 2012, 150 of his bodyguards were arrested by the sectarian government, the final blow to Maliki's credibility. He was loved by the people, and he was angry when 16 of his bodyguards (who had served him for ten years) were arrested by soldiers at his office. An arrest warrant was then put out for Issawi, and there were large demonstrations in Fallujah and Ramadi against Maliki and the Shia militia gangs.